Family Secrets

“Writers will happen in the best of families.”  

―Rita Mae Brown, feminist writer and activist. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: But we don't have to admit it.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Skunk Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need some bad jokes and silly stories? Check out the April Senior News, “A Little April Foolishness.” Available free at all the best news establishments.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

Women Journalists Targeted

 

“It’s difficult to find a female reporter who hasn’t been the target of online hate mail for doing their job, from comments that their reporting is fake news to rape and death threats.

 

“‘When I share some of the notes that I get in my DMs and inboxes with my male colleagues, they are stunned because they cannot imagine somebody going there, somebody attacking you for the way you look or for the vile thoughts they might have about you or for your roles as a wife and as a mother,’ said CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang.” . . .

 

“Female reporters describe online harassment as a ‘troll network’ and something you ‘just get numb to.’ . . . The mental toll can be a huge burden, especially for journalists who need to stay on social media throughout the day to do their jobs.”

 

—Alex Gangitano and Julia Manchester, reporters, “Online harassment is ugly and routine for women in journalism,” The Hill, March 24, 2021.

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Misogyny flourishes in modern America. What the hell is wrong with us?

 

 

 

PeezPIX

You look like you could use some bad jokes and silly stories. Check out the April Senior News, available free at all the best news establishments.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

To the Rescue

“I don’t want to see another newspaper that has a chance to increase the amount of truth being told to the American people going down the drain.” 

—Hansjörg Wyss, Swiss philanthropist, explaining his decision to join in an effort to save the Tribune Co. newspapers from being sold to a notorious hedge fund, “Swiss Billionaire Joins the Bidding for Tribune Publishing,” The NYTimes, March 27, 2021.

 

• Editorial Comment: Cue the cavalry music.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

You look like you could use some bad jokes and silly stories. Check out the April Senior News, available free at all the best news establishments.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

Reader Feedback

“AS USUAL, YOUR INFORMATION STINKS.”

—Telegram to Time magazine from Frank Sinatra (1915-1998).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Blue eyes was ahead of his time; everybody says that now.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Piglet

The March issue of Senior News is Celebrating Women’s Stories. Check it out.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

A President & the Press

“Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment, the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution — not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants,’ but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.”

—John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35^th U.S. president, “The President and the Press: Address Before the American Newspaper Publishers Association,” April 27, 1961.  

 

• Editorial Comment: Until no one pays attention to the watchdog.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Trillium Thrillium

 

The March issue of Senior News is Celebrating Women’s Stories. Check it out.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

Good News, Sleazeballs!

 

“Carl Hiaasen is retiring. This is good news.

 

“It’s good news for sleazeballs, charlatans, buffoons, blowhards and fools. It’s good news for the powerful, the pompous, the entitled, the smug and the slimy. It’s good news for those who view the Everglades as a useless swamp, or look at mangroves and see only a bunch of smelly trees blocking the view.

 

“It’s good news for those people, but it’s bad news for Florida.” 

 

—Dave Barry, columnist, “Hiaasen’s retirement is good news for sleazeballs nationwide,” The Miami Herald, March 12, 2021. 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: But what about the manatees!?

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Tall Trees

 

The March issue of Senior News is Celebrating Women’s Stories. Check it out.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard